The Snow Monkeys of Nagano

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If Tokyo is revered for its contemporary architecture, man-made structures bearing the weight of the sky, then Nagano, four hours to the north, boasts nature’s skyscrapers, a snow-capped canopy protecting the sleepy towns that hug its sides. Nagano is fondly referred to as the roof of Japan, and houses Japan’s Alps, offering some of the best skiing in the world. It was also the site of the 1998 winter Olympics. But what we had come there for was not skiing, but the legendary snow monkeys, furry little critters that live deep in the mountains, surviving the cold winters by soaking in the scalding hot onsens in what is known as hell’s valley. To get there, we traveled by train from Nagano to a tiny mountain town, famed for its many hot springs, which draw its waters from the very same source that the monkeys use. You can in fact opt to spend the night at some of the onsen lodges close to the monkey park, and on occasion, the monkeys will climb down to bathe with you. Our plan was to make our way up to the park, and on our way back, enjoy the leisure of one of those baths. This isolate location can be reached by train from Nagano City, and then a short bus ride up the steep incline into the spa area. It had been rainy when we left Nagano, and now that we were at a higher elevation in was snowing quite heavily. Once off the bus, we followed the road to a small mud path cut into the side of the mountain, leading the 2km into the park. Walking along, the snow weighed heavily on the branches, beautiful and untouched. The monkey park came into view, our ears greeted by their little primate cries. These fellows were more playful then I had imagined, chasing each other, jumping up on branches to shake down snow, and stripping the bark off twigs, which is their primary source of food during winter. I felt like I was watching a group of especially aerobatic kindergardeners during recess. They were more or less oblivious to our presence. At one point, I was standing on the path watching two of them engage in a sibling rivalry, and the weaker one ran behind me and tried to climb my leg for protection, as if I were a tree trunk. Watching the monkeys get along so naturally in a comfortable environment is such a stark difference from visiting a zoo. The day before, we had stopped by the Nagano zoo, and I was very disturbed by the two elephants in captive. One kept repeatedly slamming his head into the cement wall of the small enclosure, while the other rocked back and forth as if he were dry heaving. No one can convince me that that sort of treatment toward animals is not cruel. This type of monkey sanctuary seems to work for all parties involved, and should be a standard for how to properly observe our animal kingdom.
I wish we could have stayed all day and observed their playfulness, but as time went on, the weather became even worse, with 40mph winds and a heavy snowstorm sucking the warmth mercilessly out of us. These monkeys survive the cold because mammals with thick fur have very few sweat glands, and as a result, the heat of the onsen warms them long after they have left the bath. And so, we left the monkeys to their idle ways, and strode back through the blanketed forest to find our own steamy pool.

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